UPDATED 14:00 EDT / APRIL 21 2017

CLOUD

The story of Cisco’s containerization: Docker in a multicloud world

Hardware has been the core of business technology for many years, but now many hardware functions are being taken over by software. The cloud is just one more step on this path, offering services that used to involve major infrastructure investment.

Moving to the cloud, however, is not an easy thing. Tools and services are helping, but there is still a ways to go. Application development must still explore this unknown territory, according to Bradley Wong, director of product management at Docker Inc.

“The future of infrastructure is being led by applications and developers,” he said.

Wong and Kiran Kamity, senior director and head of container products at Cisco Systems Inc., stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile live-streaming studio, to chat with co-host Stu Miniman (@stu), during the DockerCon17 event in Austin, Texas. They discussed the Docker container platform — a virtualization method for deploying and running software apps — and the cloud.

A turnkey data center experience

There is a certain synergy between Docker and Cisco, as both have a vested interest in the cloud, but from different angles. Docker wanted customers to have a better experience getting up and running, while Cisco was searching for a way to add value to its Unified Computing System data center servers. A system that could run containers, such as Docker, was the perfect fit, Wong and Kamity explained.

Docker kicked off a series of activities to test how its products would work on Cisco servers, with the result being the Cisco Validated Design Project. Combining the wisdom of this Project with the virtual environments of UCS created the turnkey solution both Docker and Cisco were seeking.

As the world moves toward the cloud, Cisco’s goal is to provide complete solutions to customers. In its view, customers want the tools necessary to deal with a multicloud world, Kamity stated. With products like Cisco CloudCenter — which allows organizations to securely deploy and manage applications in data center, private cloud, and public cloud environments — whatever applications the customers use can be run across these multiple clouds.

Docker provides a platform for portability between on-premises and public clouds. “It’s not just hardware; that’s a part of it. It’s also software and services that complement it,” Kamity said. Partnering with the Docker ecosystem is a way to plug into those services.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of DockerCon US 2017 Austin. (*Disclosure: Cisco Systems Inc. sponsors some DockerCon segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Cisco nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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